


melancholic summer

by cassthecryptid



Category: Smosh
Genre: 'we're just friends', Broken Hearts, M/M, Summer Memories, happy endings, i'm tired and anxious and my friend told me to write this and i love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 04:39:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18542443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassthecryptid/pseuds/cassthecryptid
Summary: People liked to say that winter carried depression like the plague, but Damien liked to say that that wasn't necessarily the case for everyone. If winter had depression, then summer had melancholy.





	melancholic summer

 

The smell of petrichor and the first snap of summer moved something deep in Damien's chest. 

He sat on his tiny back porch, barely shaded from the rain as it licked against his bare legs. Damien held his coffee mug with two hands, staring out into the misty grey clouds that hung over head. Bands of water pooled in the cracks on the ground, spilling down the sides of the building and flooding the grass. 

There was a different smell to spring then there was to summer, and Damien could almost taste it in the air. 

Spring had a thin smell to it, the clean breath of warmth after the cold, the frost that normally lay deep in the earth finally, _finally,_ beginning to finally recede.

Summer was different. Summer had a heft to it that spring couldn't quite carry. It hid itself in the rain so thick that it was almost hard to breath it all in. Unlike spring, which floated softly on the air, just barely there unless you were looking for it, summer was that kind of smell that couldn't stop filling your lungs. It choked you and drew you in at the same time, dangerous and beautiful at the same time.

There was a certain sadness to summer that Damien felt was under represented. People liked to say that winter carried depression like the plague, but Damien liked to say that that wasn't necessarily the case for everyone. If winter had depression, then summer had melancholy. 

So much had changed in his life during the summer. He'd fallen in love with one too many people during the long sweltering days of summer, only to find himself alone again when the season was ending. Damien had always been in an influx during the summer, whatever that meant. That's what Shayne had always told him.

He'd met Shayne in the summer. They'd been at some acting camp together as teenagers, rivals from the very beginning, Shayne had seemingly made it his mission to outdo Damien at everything. At least, that's what it had seemed like to Damien.

The first few years of their relationship were now memories that smelled like sunscreen and summer and sweat. Every year Damien's parents shipped him across the state to the same summer camp, and every year he would meet Shayne again, and every year, one of them would've changed. The first year, Shayne got taller, the second year, Damien towered over him, the third year, Shayne's hair had lightened to a sandy blond, and then fourth year, the two of them, along with now being counselors, were completely different than what they'd been the year before. 

At the end of the summer Shayne asked for Damien's phone number, and at the end of the summer, Damien happily obliged, and for the next few months they texted nonstop. The year Damien got a car, he was never home, always out with friends or meeting Shayne halfway at a diner. Much of the summer between junior and senior year of high school was spent lying to his parents about where he was most of the time. 

Friendship was bliss, Shayne was bliss, and they were close, the "I'll hold your hand during the scary part" kind of close. 

"You're spending an awful lot of time with that Shayne guy, huh?"

"I guess," Damien had shrugged. "He's my best friend, why wouldn't I?"

"Best friend's don't do the things you do."

He'd brushed the question off like it was nothing, "I guess we're just different."

"You're something alright."

Damien had pretended that he didn't notice the soft fingers against his back, he pretended that the glances and the grins didn't make him feel something. He pretended that the night they'd driven out to Creeker's Point, and he'd let a boy undo his belt and had moaned his name, didn't mean anything. 

Summer was good. 

But summer ended. 

The return to the status-quo crushed him, the death of summer broke his heart. Damien watched as the hand of the boy with soft sandy hair gripped the hand of someone else even more tightly than it had his own. He could do nothing as he watched summer lead his heart out the door, the soft click of it latching behind them bringing him to his knees. 

Damien left for Hollywood the next summer, dreaming of another love that could break his heart just as easily. 

He wasn't alone in the city, the spot in bed next to him was seldom empty, but the loneliness crushed him. No one in LA felt real, not like they were back home, homespun, home grown, it was all he'd ever known. The city would chew him up and spit him out if he let it, and at some point, he almost did.

And then a familiar pair of blue eyes fell back into his life, in the literal sense. He'd fallen into Damien after an audition, tripped into his arms, and it had taken all of Damien's strength not to drop him.

"Hey." The word was almost patronizing. "We should get a drink sometime, catch up." 

Damien had bit his tongue and agreed. He wanted to hate Shayne, throttle him with all his strength, but something about those eyes kept him still. 

They'd drank together. Old form coming as easily as it had ever been. He was stunning now, almost impossible to look at, the way he shined. Shayne carried himself like a lion, sharp jaw, wild eyes, flowing mane, and a grin as keen and bright as a movie star's should be.

Summer was clouding his judgement, he knew it was, but something still pulled him towards Shayne. 

_Rivals, friends, star-crossed lovers? What were they supposed to be?_

That had been nearly a week ago, and Damien still wasn't sure what to think.

A black umbrella caught his eye. 

Damien turned his head to watch the figure below. They carried a bouquet of sunflowers under the crook of their arm, their phone in one hand, the other white knuckled around the umbrella's handle. He smiled just slightly at the figure, wondering what young love story might be playing out under his nose. 

The figure turned their head skywards, and Damien felt his heart stop. 

Shayne stood below him, seemingly just as surprised to see him. He raised his eyebrows, giving Damien a wave with the hand his phone was in. Damien waved back slowly, a smile slowly drawing up his face at the ridiculousness of it all.

Damien pointed to the flowers and then to himself.  _Are those for me?_

Shayne grinned, nodding as he propped the umbrella on his shoulder. 

Damien felt a giddy grin cross his face, his heart humming in his chest.

Screw the melancholy of summer, he was going to be happy. 


End file.
